Captain of seized Russian trawler needs medical aid

MURMANSK, January 07, /ITAR-TASS/. A captain of Russia’s fishing trawler, the Oleg Naidenov, seized in Senegalese waters needs medical aid, but no crew member is allowed to leave the vessel, executive director of Fenix, a company owning the trawler, Yuri Parshev, told Itar-Tass.

The captain complains of kidney ache after the Senegalese military used force while seizing the trawler, but there is no opportunity to take him to hospital for medical examination and treatment, he said.

“The armed guards keep the watch on the vessel and a deck stage, sailors cannot even enter a quayside,” Parshev said, adding that an official of the Russian federal fisheries agency, Rosrybolovstvo, also could not enter the trawler for two hours.

The trawler owner said “the Senegalese military used force, the captain has bruises from handcuffs and possibly, a kidney prolapse. The trawler’s doctor gave him injections, while a barmaid may have a broken hand.”

The Oleg Naidenov suspected of illegal fishing within Senegalese waters was seized by the Senegalese military 46 miles of Guinea-Bissau on Saturday with 82 crew onboard, including 62 Russians and 20 citizens of Guinea-Bissau, and convoyed to the port of Dakar on Sunday.

The Oleg Naidenov is owned by private company Fenix, registered in Murmansk, the extreme northwest part of Russia. It is a big fishing boat of Moonzund type, 120 meters long, built in Germany in 1989.